As the Internet grows, many different types of Web sites are becoming connected and therefore are available to users. A Web site refers to a type of graphical document presentation which is available through the “World Wide Web”, or simply “Web”, which may also be viewed as a subset of the content which is generally available through the Internet. These Web sites may contain information which is of interest to users, such as news for example. Indeed, many Internet users today obtain at least a portion of their news information from Web sites which publish such information.
Traditional newspapers and other sources of news have therefore been forced to embrace the new media which is represented by Web pages. Currently, many traditional (print) newspapers have Web sites which contain at least a portion of the news and information which is available through the print version of the newspaper. However, managing such Web sites can be cumbersome, since currently there is no simple mechanism for converting data which is available as the printed newspaper, into a format which can be directly published through the Web site. Indeed, typically newspaper publishers currently produce content for the Web site by manually reformatting the newspaper data into a format which is suitable for Web pages. Therefore, the content which is available at the Web site tends to be a relatively limited subset of the total content of the newspaper, with a structure which is not necessarily suitable for the Web site, but instead tends to reflect the structure of the printed newspaper. Thus, given the relatively limited nature of the content of the Web site, and the limited interaction with that content which is provided through the Web pages, newspapers have generally been unsuccessful at charging for the content which is available through the Web site. Indeed, the Web site may even compete with the newspaper for paying readers, thus potentially even harming the economic interests of the newspaper.
A more useful solution to this problem would enable the newspaper to more easily and more cost effectively publish news and other information through the Web site, by providing a mechanism for directly publishing the newspaper data in a format suitable for Web pages, thereby reducing the expenses associated with the maintenance of the Web site. In addition, this solution would also enable the newspapers to publish more news and information through the Web site, in a more elaborate and user-friendly layout format, such that the content of the Web site would be of greater interest to the readers of the newspaper. Such enhanced content could even be suitable for being sold by the newspaper, such that the newspaper could charge for access to the Web site content. Thus, rather than reducing the income of the newspaper, the Web site could even increase the number of paying readers and hence increase the income of the newspaper, for example by enabling international subscribers to receive a subscription to the Web site of the newspaper who would otherwise have difficulty obtaining the printed version.